Typically, Porter County primary candidates for office flood mailboxes with flyers, pictures from campaign meet and greet fundraisers find their place on Facebook feeds and hopefuls ring doorbells for the chance to chat with potential voters in the weeks before a campaign.
Not this year.
With social distancing measures and a stay-at-home order because of the new coronavirus, which also pushed back the state primary four weeks to June 2, candidates and party leaders said they have scaled back their efforts and are focusing on the safe distance of social media to carry their message.
“We’re just encouraging them to use social media and obviously working your friends and family not only through social media but emails,” said Porter County Republican Party Chair Michael Simpson.
A couple candidates are looking into using Zoom and other online platforms for virtual meet and greets, as well as town halls or debates.
“There are several people vetting ideas and they’re all good ones,” he said.
County party officials are counseling, advising and offering whatever support they can to their candidates, he said, adding he also is encouraging voters to cast absentee ballots by mail rather than voting in person.
State election officials shrank the window for in-person early voting from four weeks before the election to one week before Election Day.
Simpson said he is telling people to get absentee ballots.
“Don’t wait until the last minute,” he said.
For both veteran and first-time candidates, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant rapidly shifting gears.
Democrat Kevin Cornett made a run for Valparaiso City Council in last year’s municipal primary and now is one of four Democratic candidates for an at-large seat on the Porter County Council. The difference in campaign styles is a dramatic one.
“Just a year ago we were able to knock on doors, meet people downtown, meet face to face and shake hands with them,” he said.
Now, he wouldn’t knock on anyone’s door, or expect them to knock on his. Even mailings and door hangers aren’t a sure thing, since he knows many people who, out of safety concerns, only keep necessary mail like bills and get rid of the rest of it.
“It’s kind of a crapshoot whether it even gets in the house,” he said of mailers.
Even phone calls aren’t a sure thing since many people, wary of telemarketers, won’t answer numbers they don’t recognize, he said, leaving social media the best forum for campaigning. “You can do other things. I don’t know if you’ll be successful,” he added.
Sara Blohm, meanwhile, is making her first run for office. The Liberty Township resident faces incumbent Republican Ed Soliday for a spot on the November ballot in the race to represent District 4 in the Indiana House of Representatives.
Since she’s new to campaigning, Blohm said she didn’t have preconceived notions about what her campaign would look like.
“It was kind of jumping in with both feet and taking it day by day. I figured it would be meet and greets with a campaign kickoff and door to door (visits),” she said. “I feel like once I got the ball rolling, this happened and I was like, OK.”
Social media has come into a whole new light, she said, adding she has conducted two Facebook Live events where people could ask questions and see her in person, albeit virtually. They also can ask questions on Facebook Messenger.
Blohm admitted her 17- and 18-year-olds have assisted with her social media presence so she can connect with people, which is one of the reasons she wanted to run for office.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” she said.
Her campaign has been “100% grassroots,” so she hasn’t accepted any money from big donors. She has suspended donations since the economic downturn that accompanied the pandemic.
“I can’t in good conscience ask people for money when they’re not working,” she said, adding she’s also refunded donations.
She had a number of people who contacted her on Facebook about getting signs but, without the funds, isn’t having any made. Instead, she encouraged her social media followers to make their own signs for her campaign.
“I had several people make their own signs. It doesn’t cost money and they can use what they have at home,” she said.
Cornett hadn’t done much fundraising so that hasn’t been impacted. A few friends donated to his campaign and he got an endorsement from a local union, enough to provide seed money for his campaign and pay for yard signs.
“(The donations) happened before everything hit so I had this before everything got weird,” he said, adding he recently received an additional union endorsement and will be getting that donation down the road.
Because of those early donations, Cornett hasn’t had to ask for donations online, which he said makes him more fortunate than some others.
Blohm isn’t sure whether pushing back the primary matters, since her campaign is fully dependent at this point on social media and word of mouth. She also thinks there is at least some benefit when her name gets mentioned in telemarketing calls for her opponent’s campaign in terms of name recognition.
“We’ll see what happens,” she said. “I’m excited either way.”
Though he was initially concerned about the precedent of postponing the primary, Cornett said the change allows more time for absentee ballots to be mailed in, which is likely a benefit.
The pandemic, in many ways, has leveled the playing field for all of the candidates.
“We’re in the same boat so we just have to see how it plays out,” Cornett said, “unless somebody has a magic answer.”
Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
